Childhood friend of rapper Safaree Samuels found guilty of robbery
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The final suspect charged in the 2018 armed robbery of rapper Safaree Samuels in the parking lot of his luxury apartment complex in Fort Lee faces prison time after being found guilty on Thursday.
Shawn Harewood was being retried after a mistrial due to his former attorney's withdrawal from the case because of a personal matter. Harewood's trial started at the beginning of June.
The prosecution has long described Harewood as the mastermind of the armed robbery that stripped Samuels of $180,000 in jewelry. He recruited his cousin and his cousin's friend to carry out the actual robbery, as he and Samuels were childhood friends in Brooklyn.
A jury found Harewood guilty of robbery, eluding and resisting arrest. However, he was found not guilty of robbing Samuels' companion, conspiracy to commit robbery and weapons charges. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 2.
Brian Neary, attorney for Harewood, said the verdict refuted the state's theory of Harewood as the mastermind of the robbery.
"The not guiltys indicate the jury rejected their theory and may have only left with compromise," Neary said. "We intend to file motions with the possibility of inconsistent verdicts."
Tacuma Ashman, Harewood's cousin, was convicted in 2021 of first-degree robbery, weapons charges and resisting arrest, and his accomplice, Carl Harry, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in 2019.
“We are thankful that justice was served for Safaree Samuels,” Bergen County Assistant Prosecutors Joseph W. Torre and Megan Kilzy said in a joint statement on Thursday.
The prosecution had positied Harewood and Ashman began planning the robbery weeks in advance, relying on evidence found on Harewood's phone.
During opening statements, Neary tried to argue that Samuels was barely famous and the robbery was nothing more than to "fit right into his quest to become a celebrity."
Samuels dated female rapper Nicki Minaj for over a decade and joined the cast of VH1's "Love & Hip Hop."
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Safaree Samuels robbery in Fort Lee NJ suspect found guilty
